Letter to the Editor: Tip of the iceberg
BY Roger B. Rensvold, Midwest City
Sunday, July 29, 2012
On July 20 in Colorado, a madman
shot 70 people, killing 12. Last
year, another nut shot Arizona Rep.
Gabby Giffords. But such enormities
are only the tip of the iceberg.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control, kids in this country
are 12 times more likely to be shot
to death than kids in 25 other industrialized
nations combined. What
are we, crazy?
When the Founding Fathers
wrote the Second Amendment, they
were protecting the right to keep
and bear daggers, swords, pikes, and
single-shot, black-powder firearms.
Those men in buckled shoes and
powdered wigs didn’t anticipate assault
rifles with 100-shot magazines
any more than they could have anticipated
nuclear weapons, HDTV
or the Kardashians.
The Founding Fathers were
wrong about slavery, wrong about
women’s rights, wrong about many
things. Over time, “We the people”
have rectified their errors. Now it’s
time to fix another error, one that’s
literally killing us. It’s time to repeal
and replace the Second Amendment,
with the following:
Amendment 28: Regulation of
Weapons
1. The Second Amendment to the
Constitution is hereby repealed.
2. Congress shall enact no law respecting
the right of citizens to keep
and bear weapons.
3. The various States shall enact
laws which define weapons, and
which govern their ownership,
transfer, possession, and use.
Such a change would have no effect
in Oklahoma. It would, however,
allow the citizens of more enlightened
states to pass and enforce
sane gun laws, without constitutional
challenge.
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